OXFORD, Miss. – Every win proved decisive for the No. 29 ranked Ole Miss men’s tennis team on Friday, as the Rebels rolled up their sleeves to take down No. 56 Alabama by a score of 4-3.
The bottom of the lineup for the Rebels (15-6, 5-4 SEC) proved key for the Ole Miss victory, with wins on Courts 3, 4, 5 and 6 helping to navigate the Rebel squad past a scrappy Alabama (9-14, 1-9 SEC) side.
“Very close match for us again,” head coach Toby Hansson said. “We had match point in doubles and didn’t get it, but the guys started out from scratch in singles. It’s nice to see us winning on Courts 3, 4, 5 and 6. I really don’t think we’ve done that all year against a quality team like this one.”
“This gives us a lot of confidence. We’re just looking forward to Sunday that much more now.”
The Rebels found themselves on the backfoot early on in doubles play, with the Crimson Tide taking an early lead with a 6-3 victory on Court 2. The other two matches, however, would find themselves in 6-6 tiebreakers with the match’s doubles point on the line.
No. 1 doubles team Simon Junk and John Hallquist Lithen were able to get the team back on track in their matchup, as the recently ranked pairing took down No. 78 Filip Planinsek/German Samofalov 7-6(5). This marks the duo’s third ranked doubles win of 2022-23, with all three coming in the team’s previous four matches.
Over on Court 3, Nikola Slavic and Noah Schlagenhauf were in a battle of their own with the doubles point on the line. In a back-and-forth tiebreaker, the Rebels came up just short with Alabama taking the tiebreaker 9-7 to take the match 7-6. This put Alabama up 1-0 early…
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